Ramp Up Your Advocacy with The Arc in 2018

Last year was a year of grassroots advocacy for The Arc in Alabama and across the country. Throughout the year, people with disabilities, family members, and advocates, like you, fought to protect important programs and services. Through calling and meeting with members of Congress, sharing your stories, showing up at rallies and townhall events – you helped show the power of the disability community.

We can’t stop now: We need to keep the momentum going and grow the movement of people to support the rights and full inclusion of people with disabilities. There are so many important issues at stake: affordable health care coverage, access to Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income, paid family and medical leave, funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, civil rights protections, and much more.

Are you looking for ways to ramp up your advocacy with The Arc in 2018? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Join Our Fight! To be a strong force we need more people taking action during key times. Sign up here to get Action Alerts from The Arc and our weekly Capitol Insider newsletter to keep you up-to-date on important policy issues and legislations in Congress for people with disabilities – and ask your friends and family to sign up too. The bottom line is: the more people taking action, the more powerful we will be.

#WeActWednesday with The Arc. Take your advocacy online each Wednesday for #WeActWednesday! Each week, The Arc posts on Facebook and Twitter a new way to get involved. Take the action and share/retweet to spread the word. Make sure you can see content from The Arc on Facebook by clicking "see first" in the drop down under "following" on our top page menu.

Share your story.Personal stories are one of the most powerful advocacy tools we have – and everyone has one! Have Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, Supplemental Security Income, or paid family and medical leave made a difference in your life or in loved ones? Share your story with us by visiting The Arc’s Action Center.

Don’t be shy about calling Congress. Sharing your point of view with your members of Congress is an important part of our democracy – it’s their job to represent you and they want to hear from you. Currently, The Arc is asking advocates to call Congress to ask for support for the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program, which helps people with disabilities and seniors transition into living in the community from nursing homes and institutions. You can learn more about it, and call your members of Congress here.

(Claire Manning is Director, Advocacy & Mobilization at The Arc’s national office.)